Pathfinder
In The Pathfinder Project '' |image=thumb|260px |series= |production=40840-230 |producer(s)= |story= David Zabel |script= David Zabel Kenneth Biller |director=Mike Vejar |imdbref=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708944 tt0708944 |guests=Dwight Schultz as Reginald Barclay, Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, Richard McGonagle as Pete Harkins, Richard Herd as Adm. Owen Paris, Peter Bevine as Security Guard and Mark Daniel Cade as Technician |previous_production=The Voyager Conspiracy |next_production=Fair Haven |episode=VGR S06E10 |airdate=1 December 1999 |previous_release=The Voyager Conspiracy |next_release=Fair Haven |story_date(s)=Unknown |group="N"}} (2376) |previous_story=The Voyager Conspiracy |next_story=Fair Haven }} Summary Back on Earth, Lieutenant Barclay becomes obsessed with making contact with Voyager. During his project to contact Voyager, Barclay becomes consumed with the holographic recreations of the Voyager crew. Barclay seeks advice from his old friend from the Enterprise-D, Counselor Troi, who helps him deal with his growing problem. Barclay is standing alone on the re-creation of the Voyager bridge, until he is interrupted on the viewscreen by his boss, Commander Peter Harkins. Harkins reminds Barclay of his duty to finish the transmitter diagnostics, so Barclay immediately ends the program as the bridge disappears. Barclay then suggests that the team try to use an approaching itinerant pulsar in order to make contact with Voyager. By directing a tachyon beam at the pulsar, Barclay believes that it will produce a surge powerful enough to create an artificial wormhole, thus establishing two-way communication with Voyager. However, Harkins tells Barclay that they need to instead be focusing their time on Admiral Paris' visit and briefing. Later that night when everyone has gone home, Barclay decides to once again activate the hologrid. He enters the holo-mess hall and sits down to play cards with holo-Paris, holo-Chakotay and holo-Kim. Barclay is confident and relaxed among the holographic crew and he tells them that they are his best friends. The next day, Barclay finds himself in the holo-Sickbay where the holo-Doctor tells him that he is an invaluable member of the crew. Then in the holo-mess hall, Kim and Paris both want to hang out with him. Barclay responds by telling his holo-friends that there is plenty of him to go around. Back in the research lab, Harkins is briefing Admiral Paris and the other Starfleet Officials on the last known position of Voyager. Against Harkins' wishes, Barclay interrupts and begins telling Admiral Paris about his wormhole theory. Harkins is so upset with Barclay that he sends him home for the rest of the day. However, instead of following orders, Barclay enters the holo-briefing room and asks his holo-friends for technological advice. Janeway offers Barclay a team to help him work out the details. Then, Harkins enters the lab and discovers that Barclay has created holograms of the Voyager crew. Harkins suggests that Barclay needs counseling because he has struggled with holo-addiction in the past. In the meantime, Harkins decides to take Barclay off of the Voyager rescue project. Defying orders, Barclay goes to Admiral Paris' office where he asks him for access to the lab for one more day. If he is wrong about his theory, Barclay promises to resign from his position. Admiral Paris only agrees to order an independent review of Barclay's findings. If others agree that his idea is valid, then he'll order Commander Harkins to pursue his claim. Back at Barclay's apartment, Troi expresses concern for Barclay's anxiousness and paranoia. Barclay begs Troi to tell the Admiral that he is psychologically fit to return to work. Barclay admits that he has created a new family since he left the Enterprise, however, the family he has created is not real. Troi tells Barclay that she has requested a temporary leave of absence from the Enterprise so she can stay a while longer. That night, Barclay once again defies order and heads to the research lab. His code is de-authorized, so he manipulates the computer to get inside. Once in the lab, Barclay accesses the MIDAS Array, directs a tachyon beam toward the pulsar to open a micro-wormhole, and sends a message to Voyager in hopes of getting a response. Suddenly, Harkins enters the lab and instructs Barclay to step away from the controls. Instead of following orders, Barclay tells the computer to transfer control to the hologrid. Barclay tells holo-Tuvok that there are two security guards after him, and he orders the computer to trap them with a forcefield. While Harkins works on shutting down the program by simulating a warp core breach, Barclay continues to work on making contact with the real Voyager through the wormhole. Harkins and two other guards catch up with Barclay on the holo-Bridge, where holo-Janeway alerts the crew to the presence of intruders. Barclay immediately commands a forcefield, which prevents Harkins and the guards from reaching him, while he begs for more time. However, the holo-Voyager is about to self-destruct, so Barclay voluntarily ends the program and gives himself up. Meanwhile on the real Voyager, Seven of Nine has detected an artificial micro-wormhole whose origin is in the Alpha Quadrant. Janeway immediately instructs Paris to lay in a course toward the range. Back in the Pathfinder lab, just as Harkins asks Admiral Paris what he should do with Barclay, they receive a response from Voyager. Janeway and Admiral Paris are able to converse briefly and he tells her that they are doing everything in their power to bring Voyager back. Harkins apologizes to Barclay for ever doubting him, and Admiral Paris announces the beginning of "Project Voyager." Meanwhile in the Delta Quadrant, the Voyager crew toasts Barclay, even though they don't personally know him, for his extraordinary efforts. Back on Earth, Troi congratulates Barclay, and he tells her about the woman he's started dating. Errors and Explanations Internet Movie Database Trivia # Although The Doctor fails to mention it at the ending celebration, he did meet a holo-recreation of Reginald Barclay in Projections, where he learned that Barclay was a part of the creation project of the EMH, testing the EMH's interpersonal skills. This may be due to The Doctor's personal memories being lost after those events, in The Swarm. ' Incorrectly regarded as goofs # Barclay's holographic simulation of Voyager includes the former Maquis crewmen in their civilian clothes. '''When the Doctor was transferred to the Alpha Quadrant two years before, informed Starfleet of everything that had happened to the Voyager crew. Presumably, this would include the fact that the Maquis had been integrated into the Starfleet crew. But Barclay only had older pictures to work with. ' # Starfleet Command has extrapolated Voyager's location, assuming they were averaging warp 6 ever since the Doctor made contact with Starfleet in Star Trek: Voyager: Message in a Bottle. '''The fact that since then Voyager has used a stolen trans-warp coil, a slipstream drive, sub-space corridor and catapult, and a couple of wormholes to get them tens of thousands of light years closer to home, means that Voyager was nowhere near the sectors to which Barclay pointed his wormhole, so Barclay couldn't have succeeded - but he doesn't know this. #The Doctor starts flagrantly divulging the medical history of Reginald Barclay to the assembled Voyager crew. This would seem to be a complete breach of medical confidentiality, something which The Doctor is programmed not to do. As Reginald Barclay was never his patient, this rule does not apply. ' Nit Central # ''Richie Vest Why would Seven be teaching anyone to sing? It seems to me to be out of character for her. '''It could be part of her efforts to regain her humanity. # Adam on Wednesday, December 01, 1999 - 7:53 am: Let me get this straight. Barclay wants to contact Voyager so he recruits...Troi? Troi? A ship's shrink? Shouldn't he go to Geordi? Or Data? Or *ANYONE* that isn't Troi. Ed Watson on Wednesday, December 01, 1999 - 10:10 am: Adam, Apparantly, Troi is there because Barclay becomes obsessed with contacting a ship so far away, and of course, everyone just thinks he's going off the deep end again. He is supposedly more in need of psycological help than technical help. # Corey Hines on Wednesday, December 01, 1999 - 8:04 pm: Not one word about the Dominion War. Bad. Plantman on Thursday, December 02, 1999 - 2:11 pm: Because the war would have been over for about 6 to 10 months by now. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to talk about war for 10 months every day!! # Anonymous on Wednesday, December 01, 1999 - 8:11 pm: There WERE nice touches in the episode: the Maquis crewmember uniforms and Barclay thinking Paris was a Lt. (by the two pips he wore in the sim) Not including Seven and Neelix (and Kes) in the simulation made sense, too. But unless the Doctor's briefing on Voyager's situation to Starfleet in "Message in a Bottle" was extremely comprehensive (and the fact that Chakotay and Torres wore Maquis uniforms seems to say it wasn't), there are some big problems with Barclay's simulation: first of all, Tuvok should only be a Lt., as well. (He's wearing his post-"Revulsion" Lt-Com. pips.) Also, the Mess Hall wasn't a Mess Hall when Voyager set out, was it? (Seems odd the Doctor'd mention that and not that Chakotay had been given an honorary commission.) Plantman on Thursday, December 02, 1999 - 2:11 pm: Actually he did. In the simulation, Holo-Torres askes Barclay for help with the warp core. This is something that the chief engineer would do. Perhaps Holodoc told Starfleet that Torres and Chakotay were given promotions but didn't tell them anything about them changing their uniforms. (How everyone is dressing is not an important topic when you are trying to tell starfleet about being lost in the Delta Quadrant) # I had hoped the reason the initial transmissions hadn't worked was because Voyager had travelled much farther than Starfleet thought (average warp 6.2 or whatever), given the jumps in Hope and Fear, Dark Frontier et al. But no, it was just so we could have that lame suspense part. I guess it's not impossible that Voyager couldn't have received the transmission even though it was aimed way behind them, but it sure seems like the writers forgot the jumps AGAIN. I'd think the Doctor would've remembered Barclay, too, but I guess his limited exposure to him as well as the events of The Swarm made the lack of the connection OK. Plantman on Thursday, December 02, 1999 - 2:11 pm: Because in The Swarm he had a huge memory lapse. Something was sure to be lost. (OR-- In the episode Projections, the Holodoc went through a very traumatic experience. Maybe he deleted the experience so that he wouldn't be preocupied by the issues he confronted.) # Matthew Patterson (Mpatterson) on Thursday, December 02, 1999 - 2:57 pm: Oh... Just thought of something... the coordinates that Barclay gives for the position of Voyager are in two dimensions, not three. Problems, anyone? '''ScottN on Thursday, December 02, 1999 - 5:45 pm: A two dimensional bearing provides a vector. He was providing a generic direction, and hoping a signal sent along that vector would intercept Voyager. ''' Notes Category:Episodes Category:Voyager